Dear Colleague,

Compliance with condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger, and Consumer law

I refer to my letters of 23 February 2018¹ and 8 May 2018 regarding compliance with Condition 4 of the Passenger Licence and GB Statement of National Regulatory Provisions: Passenger (Information to Passengers)² and the Consumer Protection (from Unfair Trading) Regulations 2008 (the ‘CPRs’).

In your reply to our 8 May 2018 letter you were asked to identify any blockers that may be preventing you from giving passengers the information that they need to plan and make their journey with a reasonable degree of assurance. Some operators told us that this is due to a lack of functionality on the Trainline ticket engine that you use on your site. We are therefore writing to all nine operators that use this service³ and separately to the Trainline.

We remain concerned that passengers who choose to plan a journey or purchase a ticket using your website will be less informed than those using National Rail Enquiries (NRE). This is because the messaging about changes to services or uncertainty in the timetable is not being shown on your website.

¹ Letters may be downloaded from the “publications and updates” section at the bottom of the page on the ORR website at http://orr.gov.uk/rail/consumers/licence-obligations-to-consumers/passenger-information-during-disruption ² http://orr.gov.uk/\_\_data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2234/lic-passlic.pdf ³ Nine operators use a Trainline ticket engine. They are Greater Anglia, ScotRail, West Midlands Trains, East Midlands Trains, Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains Wales, CrossCountry, Grand Central and Northern This next step of our work narrows the focus to the three principle concerns where we have noted that there remain significant gaps in information provision:

1. the majority of train operators do not put the warnings (icons and messages) that are shown on the NRE website on their website or apps;
2. where NRE flags trains as not being confirmed to run, the message is not shown on train operator ticket engines which generally have no cautionary messages at all;
3. where train times have changed since the ticket was booked, train operators are not contacting passengers to alert them to the new journey times or refund options

We need to be assured that all reasonably practicable steps are being taken to provide passengers with appropriate, accurate and timely information to enable them to plan and make their journeys with a reasonable degree of assurance, as we consider that a lack of messaging on ticket engines is unacceptable. Where changes are planned we need to have evidence of a firm commitment and a delivery date that is within a reasonable timescale.

**Next steps**

It is important that we meet with you urgently to discuss these three concerns with you. This can be in the form of a face-to-face meeting or a call.

Information provided in reply to our letters and in the discussions will be considered with the results of our monitoring of websites(^4) to enable us to take a decision on whether to commence our formal enforcement process(^5).

I would be grateful if you could confirm receipt of this letter by return e-mail indicating your availability to meet based on the options given in the covering e-mail. We will be placing a copy of this letter and any further correspondence regarding this issue, on our website(^6).

Yours sincerely

John Larkin

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(^4) [http://orr.gov.uk/\_\_data/assets/pdf_file/0003/27804/informed-traveller-investigation-2018-05-25.pdf](http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/27804/informed-traveller-investigation-2018-05-25.pdf)

(^5) [http://orr.gov.uk/rail/rail-enforcement-powers](http://orr.gov.uk/rail/rail-enforcement-powers)

(^6) Information about our Informed Traveller investigation is on the ORR website at [http://orr.gov.uk/rail/consumers/rail-timetable-issues](http://orr.gov.uk/rail/consumers/rail-timetable-issues). Strand 2 is the part of the investigation looking at information provided to passengers